March 23, 2012

The Executive Life of New York (ELNY) Liquidation Hearing enters its seventh day today before Judge John M. Galasso in Room 35 of the Nassau County State Supreme Court Building in Mineola, New York. This blog post provides a summary update for S2KM readers. Note: see also the Addendum.

Days 1 and 2 - Attorneys for ELNY's Receiver, the Superintendent of the New York State Department of Financial Services (Superintendent), and the National Organization of Life and Health Guaranty Associations (NOLHGA) present their case for ELNY's liquidation and approval of a proposed Restructuring Agreement to create successor company Guaranty Association Benefits Company (GABC). They present two witnesses: Jonathan Bing, Special Deputy Superintendent of the New York Liquidation Bureau (NYLB), and expert witness Jack Gibson, a Managing Director of Towers Watson.

Day 3 - Attorneys for ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims continue their cross examination of Gibson. Judge Galasso denies their motion to compel immediate disclosure of source materials relied upon by Gibson as well as copies of all objections filed in connection with the Petition to liquidate and restructure ELNY.

Attorneys for the shortfall victims had argued that claims of confidentiality by the Superintendent intentionally deprived their clients of full and fair access to important and relevant information and, accordingly, a full and fair opportunity to challenge the Superintendent's proposed ELNY Restructuring Agreement. They also claimed it is "extremely prejudicial" to require them to cross-examine Gibson ("a highly skilled actuary") without access to the source data and assumptions he used to perform his calculations.

Day 4 - Attorneys representing ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims continue cross-examining Gibson. Judge Galasso agrees to two of their requests: a reservation of rights to call a witness representing NOLHGA to testify about participating Guaranty Association (PGA) coverage amounts and issues; and a Microsoft Excel version of Schedule 1.15 of the proposed ELNY Restructuring Agreement. In addition to Day 2 testimony from ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims, their attorneys have also entered documents into the Court record including:

Written and oral statements by ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims;

Day 5 - Attorneys from Hogan Lovells, representing Travelers Insurance Company as an "Objector", use their opportunity to cross-examine Gibson to show their support for the proposed Restructuring Agreement. Note: Hogan Lovells also serves as General Counsel for the National Structured Settlement Trade Association (NSSTA).

Cynthia Lindsey, an attorney representing a Michigan structured settlement shortfall victim, reaches the opposite conclusion during her cross examination of Gibson. After quoting dictionary definitions for "fair" and "just", Lindsey characterizes the proposed Restructuring Agreement as "a bunch of bull" telling Gibson: "You are asking this Honorable Court to approve this plan based upon your assumptions. You don't have facts." After repeated questioning by Lindsey, Gibson acknowledges NOLHGA has paid Gibson's employer, Towers Watson, "more than $3 million" since 2006 for their ELNY consulting work.

On re-direct examination, attorneys for the Superintendent (Sidley Austin) and NOLHGA (Faegre Baker Daniels) encourage Gibson to repeat claims from his earlier testimony that the proposed ELNY Restructuring Agreement represents the "best plan" and that none of the ELNY payees will be worse off compared with a straight liquidation.

Day 6 - Edward Stone, an attorney representing several structured settlement shortfall victims, continues questioning Gibson on re-cross examination. Stone questions whether all shortfall victims will be better off under the proposed Restructuring Agreement compared with a straight liquidation. In a straight liquidation, ELNY shortfall victims could receive full coverage payments from PGAs instead of net payments under the proposed Restructuring Agreement. Stone also introduces the idea of an alternative restructuring plan for ELNY and asks Gibson whether he considered various plan options.

Among Stone's suggested alternatives: 1) discounting ELNY's future deferred lump sum obligations to reduce ELNY's future liabilities and provide immediate cash for ELNY payees; and 2) selling ELNY to an existing life insurance company that could benefit from (and pay a premium for) ELNY's net operating loss carryforwards. Note: in an earlier interview with the Courthouse News Service, Stone stated he could develop a more "fair and equitable" alternative ELNY restructuring plan if he had access to the same information provided NOLHGA and Gibson since 2006.

When Gibson finally steps down (after six days of testimony and cross-examination), attorneys for the Superintendent and NOLHGA call NOLHGA's President, Peter Gallanis as a witness. On cross-examination, Carrie Tendler, an attorney representing multiple structured settlement shortfall victims, gets Gallanis to confirm that PGA contributions under the Superintendent's proposed Restructuring Agreement will be "net amounts" - i.e. their full coverage caps minus credits for current ELNY assets.

The ELNY Liquidation Hearing resumes Friday March 23, 2012 with Tendler continuing her cross-examination of Gallanis. For S2KM's complete reporting about ELNY, see the structured settlement wiki.

Day 7 ADDENDUM - Testimony by, and cross-examination of, NOLHGA's President Peter Gallanis continued on Friday March 23 eliciting the following information: Gallanis acknowleged GABC has not yet selected an investment manager or developed an investment strategy. Attorneys for structured settlement shortfall victims raised two issues related to the proposed ELNY Restructuring Agreement:

Orphan contract enhancements create a potential public policy issue because they shift available funds that could be paid to other ELNY shortfall payees.

If an ELNY structured settlement payee with life contingent payments dies, that payee could receive less than the present value posted on Schedule 1.15 creating a potential legal claim for his/her estate.

The ELNY Hearing continues on Monday March 26 with attorneys for the ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims expected to present witnesses.

March 22, 2012

Courthouse News Service, a nationwide news service for lawyers and the news media, has published a report about the ELNY Liquidation Hearing titled: "Insurance Beneficiaries Say NY is Cheating". Written by Julia Filip, the article features the following quotes from attorney Edward Stone excerpted from written objections he filed on behalf of his ELNY structured settlement shortfall clients plus additional allegations Stone makes in his interview with the Courthouse News Service Article:

"For more than twenty years the NYLB [New York Liquidation Bureau] mismanaged ELNY and created a deficit of epic proportions never before seen in the context of a life insurance company insolvency .... And now this court is being asked to sweep all of this waste, mismanagement and neglect under the rug by taking away benefits from those most in need: the shortfall payees."

Stone's clients, and other ELNY structured settlement shortfall victims,"were excluded from the process of designing the liquidation plan and denied the opportunity to confront the New York Liquidation Bureau."

"To suggest that my clients should have divined that their payments were being reduced prior to the receipt of the notice letter in mid-December, which is the only time any shortfall information was given to them, and somehow fashioned an alternative plan for consideration by the court with no access to any source data or reference materials they could have independently assessed is simply absurd."

"Nobody ever came to anyone whose benefits were being cut and said, 'Hey, do you want to come up with an alternative plan, with a better way to do this?'"

"To make matters worse, the Superintendent continues to maintain supervision over the process at the expense of the shortfall payees. ..Isn't 21 years of supervised rehabilitation enough?"

"The NYLB proposed plan favors [Guaranty Associations] over shortfall payees and the entire restructuring agreement is designed to favor NOLGHA members' interests at the expense of my clients."

"They're doing it [ELNY proposed liquidation and Restructuring Agreement] in a way that is so unfair and insensitive and the only reason they do it is to cover up 21 years of mismanagement."

"I wasn't able to get an audit; who knows if [the Receiver and MetLife as annuity administrator] were paying people who were already dead?"

"NYLB admitted that their data is not accurate and is unreliable, and they based all the data on information from only one source, which, by [NYLB's witnesses] own admission, is not credible, and was never verified by any third party."

"The data produced by the NYLB to date is inconsistent, inaccurate and completely and wholly lacking in transparency. To push through an inequitable plan of liquidation and approve the restructuring agreement before the court, without giving the shortfall payees a meaningful opportunity to be heard flies in the face of the most basic notions of fairness and due process."

"Based on the way twenty years of 'rehabilitation' have unfolded, my clients have no way of knowing the true financial condition of ELNY and there has been no transparency, no credibility and no integrity in the financial reporting that took place in the past."

Referring to an article about ELNY written by New York attorney Peter Bickford: "ELNY's cash flow went negative in 2002, ten years after the plan of rehabilitation and six years before the economic downturn of 2008."

"Without requiring any additional contributions from the [Guaranty Associations], we could structure an alternative plan that would have an independent entity take over, let them pursue legal action on behalf of everyone, let them supervise, and take all the contributions from the [Guaranty Associations] and pay off those benefits, and offer people alternatives. If they want to convert annuities into a different product, as a choice, they could do it now, as opposed to just leave them on a hook forever."

"But to really propose a new plan, I would have to understand what the liabilities are, to really figure out what we have to do, we need the same information the other side has had for 3 years. We never got it."

"A fair and equitable plan of liquidation would base future payments on the percentage of the original settlement that has been received by all payees and apply the percentage that remains outstanding to ELNY's assets, such that all 9,600 remaining ELNY payees receive as close to the same percentage of promised benefits as is possible."

"A fair and equitable plan would also consider the impact of payment reductions and consider rescheduling future payments to allow for an upfront benefit to ease the transition for those payees whose payments are ultimately reduced. The proposed liquidation plan does not address this."

"The most vile part is asking the judge to grant them judicial immunity ... I suspect from the data we had that something is not right. They made a $1 billion dollar adjustment to their reserve in 2006, based on a change in assumptions that they could have made in 1992."

The ELNY Liquidation hearing continues for the sixth day today before Judge John M. Galasso in Room 35 of the Nassau County State Supreme Court Building in Mineola, New York. S2KM's complete ELNY reporting appears on the structured settlement wiki.